


A Cold Bond

by Kirbstering



Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games)
Genre: Legiana - Freeform, Monster Hunter Stories - Freeform, monster hunter - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-18 11:30:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21610204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirbstering/pseuds/Kirbstering
Summary: A short story about the bond between a girl and a monster, and the struggle both must endure to ensure their friendship can last.
Kudos: 24





	A Cold Bond

A world of humans, Felynes, and monsters. These were the three main categories of living beings on their planet. Humans were often the dominant species as they utilised both power and strategy to overcome the latter two. Felynes were often crafty, separated into two main kinds—those that allied with humans, and those that were isolated and worked against everything. And then you have monsters—beasts of varying sizes, colours, and abilities. The majority were untamed, free creatures that lived out their lives in the wilderness of the world. Some monsters are relatively harmless, yet many were aggressive and thus considered threats to both humans and Felynes alike. Humans set up organisations to aid in the removal of monsters from the world, and justified their actions mainly through science and for the safety of the world. Most seemed to agree this culling was necessary, even if at times it seemed unethical. The population of monsters far outweighed humanity, and if the former were ever given the chance to strike back, it could very well be possible their treatment of monsters were to bounce back in a sad state of role reversal.

At least, that is what her father told her. Emeryth, nineteen year of age, sat herself at the entrance of a cave, cloaked in warm clothing to better befit the snowy weather she found herself in. She still found the words of her father echoing in her mind to this day, despite having not seen him for over two years. Despite them rarely seeing eye to eye on any subject, she still found herself longing for the comfort of the man that raised her. Her mother mysteriously passed away when she was a young child—yet how she passed away, he would not tell her. The older she grew, the larger the hole in her heart grew. She became especially jealous of the children around her who had the simple pleasure of both parents. Yet in the present day, having both gone left an empty feeling within her heart. She often did get frustrated with him, especially when he went on and on about his science. Though regardless of how much he spoke of it, he always sounded… proud. If there was one thing she missed about his presence, it was that dorky pride he had.

She pulled up her grey scarf closer to her face as a sudden blast of wind rushed through the cave, dragging in bits and pieces of snow. She could leave if she wanted to, yet she promised a dear friend that they would meet up, in that very location. Well, it was more a one-way promise. It had been almost two hours, yet no show. She was accustomed to cold climates, having grown up her entire life in a village nearby Darj Snowfields. However, even she had her limits. She pulled herself up off the stone cold ground, aching to stretch her body a little. She was grateful there weren’t any high winds on this day to cause a disturbance. The fear of blizzards is what caused her village to recede further into the mountains, to better protect from the threat of nature. On the downside, it limited trade between the cities of the world, and it wasn’t too unheard of for outsiders to become lost in the labyrinth of the snowfield.

As she traversed the snowscape, her nose caught an odd scent. The scent was familiar, yet unrecognisable enough for her to pinpoint what it was. The temptation was too much for her to resist. Besides, it isn’t like she had anything else to do in the meantime. She allowed her nose to direct her to the destination, yet the closer she came to the source of the stench, the clearer it became that it wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of pleasantry. The stench was foul, growing ever worse. As she pushed forward, she felt a sudden pit in her stomach, telling her to retreat. Monster Class 101 had taught her to never wander too far out into the world without a weapon or Monster—monsters that had been tamed and were loyal to their Riders. However, her village wasn’t known for housing too many Riders, with many opting for the more peaceful lifestyle. She couldn’t blame them in their line of thinking, yet at times she felt people in her village were too carefree at times.

Pushing through some more shrubbery, she located the source of the smell. Hidden away from the sight of most people and monsters lay the fresh carcass of an icy blue monster. Its body covered in large wounds and a familiar red substance, she held up her arm to her face, protecting herself from the awful stench that almost caused her to puke. However, her curiosity outweighed the stench. Slowly edging towards the monster, she positioned herself relative to the carcass so she was able to gain a better look at its front half. She recognised the monster now. It was a Great Baggi—a hostile predator that often led a pack of smaller monsters known as Baggi. While not the strongest predator out there, it still did pose a threat to others with its ability to put almost anything to sleep with a special bodily fluid. Whatever had killed this monster must have been large. Given the freshness of the carcass, she figured whatever monster caused this was somewhere nearby. Yet her first thought wasn’t protecting herself. It was protecting her friend.

Careful not to attract too much attention, she hurried back to the cave she was previously residing in. She wanted to have one final look around the Snowfields, in search of her friend. The presence of a large monster terrified her, as dark thoughts entered her mind. She paused halfway back, shaking her head, ridding of the fears she had. Now was not the time to panic. Now was the time to search for her friend, and get back to her village. Forgetting about the dangers of making too much noise, she sprinted her way back to the cave, as fast as she could. Travelling through the snow wasn’t the fastest mean of travel, yet it was all she could do to give her the best possible chance.

After a few more minutes of sprinting, she arrived back inside the cave. She collapsed on top of the backpack waiting for her, letting her body recover for a minute. Somehow, being inside shelter made everything feel ten times safer. She was glad her backpack wasn’t taken while she was gone. Even she couldn’t answer why or how she managed to forget about her essentials. Perhaps she was so caught up in the moment that—

...and then it happened. With no warning whatsoever, the entire world turned to darkness. It took her a few moments to realise that the cave had collapsed, yet by the time it hit her, she was completely trapped inside. The bright, white snow that lay in front of her a few moments ago was now pitch darkness. Luckily, nothing had landed on her, yet she was now left in total silence.

A minute passed, as she kept her ears peeled for anything that could offer her hope. She knew the worst thing she could do right now is call for help, as it might call for unwanted visitors. She felt her way around the cave, rubbing her hand against the smooth surfaces. Yet no matter how much she searched, there was nothing of value to find. Figuring she was out of options, she called out for her friend’s name. And then, a few moments after doing so, a speck of light appeared. Hopeful, she raced towards the light. The light grew even bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Until it could grow no larger. Yet what met her was not her friend. No, it was something else entirely. Something ferocious, and probably the very think that had both trapped her, and killed the Great Baggi. A leviathan she had only ever seen of in books stood right before her, its beak snapping in anticipation. This was the one the books called a Glacial Agnaktor.

The creature let out a large cry, causing her to fall backwards. All she could do now was slowly crawl her way to the back of the crumbled cave, hoping to think of some solution. Yet there was little she could do. Even if she wanted to do something, she was paralysed with fear, staring up at this impressive monster. It was much larger than she was—larger in length rather than height. Yet its height was still something to be admired. Despite her admiration for monsters, there was no avoiding the fact she was terrified.

The monster finally made its move, snapping at the girl’s left foot. She barely pulled it in, preventing a nasty injury, if only for the time being. In that moment, part of the cave’s roof suddenly collapsed, landing on the both of them. She felt several heavy, yet not lethal, rocks crash against her body. The pain was very real. Dazed, she pulled herself out from the rocks. Despite them both suffering from the collapsed cave, the ice monster was relatively unfazed. If there was one thing Agnaktor, especially of the glacial variety, were known for, it was their thick armour. The cave-in had seemingly angered the monster greatly. It was clear it was done toying with the girl.

Despite the pain in her body, she pulled herself off the ground, thankful nothing was broken. In that moment, the Agnaktor leapt towards her, where she responded with diving behind a boulder. Luckily, with most of the cave now collapsed, she was now free to make her escape. She quickly eyed a forested area not too far off, and decided on that location to hide as she sprinted towards the numerous pine trees covered in a blanket of snow. She hadn’t the time to even look behind her, yet she could hear the sound of the monster behind her, moving as fast as it could. While she could not confirm it with her own eyes, it did sound like the monster was diving in and out of the snow covered ground below. She surmised it was likely so that it could travel faster. If she didn’t reach safety soon…

The very moment she did reach the first tree that represented the snow covered woodlands, she immediately jumped behind the thickest tree she could find. Whether the Agnaktor would cease to pursue her, she was unsure. It was the best thing she could do in that moment. Every fibre in her body doubted this plan would work. Hiding from a ferocious predator using just a tree? Brilliant plan. Yet, against all odds, quickly the booming sounds produced by this monster died down. It was almost instantaneous. Did it perhaps lose sight of her? Or saw some other meal that could satisfy its craving? Whatever it was, she was glad. Legs shaking, she peered out from behind the tree trunk, and to her surprise and relief, she saw the normal, beautiful scenery of the icy wonderland.

Out of nowhere, a noise echoed. She froze, terrified. Yet she was frozen for only a second as she realised what the sound was. It was something she recognised, and was overjoyed to hear. The cry was high pitched, and beautiful, yet also chilling to the bone. It echoed far and wide, likely reaching the ears of any creature within several kilometres. Her friend was nearby. She peered up to the cloudy sky above, eager to finally face the dear friend of hers.

Some might call her crazy. Not because one of her closest friends is a monster, yet because this is a friendship based on trust. The bonds between humans and monsters were nice to see back at her village, yet there was always some amount of training process required for a human and monster to truly bond. The bond she and this monster shared never required any of that. In all the years she has known this monster, not once did it require a shared language.

A few minutes passed, and her friend was nowhere to be seen. The clouds and this monster were similar of colour, so perhaps her eyes simply managed to barely miss the creature. A couple more minutes passed, and suddenly her fears were growing. With the recent sighting and escape of the Agnaktor, there was a possibility it had found her friend. Without giving her time to think through the situation, her emotions led her to immediately jump out from behind the trees and—

She ran straight into something heavy. A boulder or tree, perhaps. Yet it seemed rather… jagged. The air taken right out of her lungs, she collapsed onto the snow below, landing right on her backside. The pain hurt for a few seconds, yet passed afterwards. Fearful that she might wake up to discover a broken bone, she opened her eyes to see a face. A familiar face. The two yellow eyes blinked back at her, shining brightly against the dark face of this monster. Her friend.

She let out a quiet sigh of relief, mixed in with a nervous laughter. A goofy smile appeared across her face as the sharp teeth of the winged ice wyvern smiled back in its own way. Either way, she could tell the friend was happy. She knew not the species of this monster, and she suspected no one back at her village did as well, seeing as how there were zero books specialising in or mentioning the large wyvern in front of her. Its overall size was quite large; from head to tail, she suspected its length was around ten metres. However, the real impressive aspect was its wingspan. Its wingspan essentially doubled its size, to an impressive twenty metres or so. It had a fin like appendage at the end of its long tail, as well as large fins on top of its heads. Ice could be seen across its slender body. Many times, she has seen her friend strike with chilling ice, seemingly able to produce ice particles, shards, and chunks within seconds. She found this ability to bring force ice from its body fascinating, and over the years she had grown an interesting in discovering its secrets. However, she found herself unable to speak of its existence to anyone, even within the village. Perhaps they would fear it, and try to scare it away, or hurt it. And those at the Hunter’s Guild would surely enjoy the opportunity to hunt it, no matter how ridiculous the excuse. It was not hurting anyone. It may look terrifying, yet it was a gentle soul, only shown as aggressive or defensive whenever threatened.

She had known this creature from another land every since she was a young girl. If her memory served correct, she was eight years old at the time. She wandered a fair distance away from her village, losing contact with everyone. The day was peaceful at first. At the time, she hadn’t realised the danger she had put herself in. Monsters in all natural ecosystems were of any nature, including harmful. Usually the larger, the more aggressive. She had heard the cries of an unfamiliar sound. The cries of pain called out to her. Unable to resist the cry, she followed the sound, which led to a mysterious monster hiding itself in some bush. It was lying in a pool of blood, which had stained the green and white ground beneath itself. It was a horrible sight, and took her several moments to get over. If someone else with more common sense had been with her, they would have for sure urged her to stay back. She did not think those in her village would dream of doing harm to the monster any further. Those that remained lived alongside monsters, so unless they had a reason to fend off something, they attempted to avoid so. There was something about seeing something in pain, even if dangerous, that brought out the sympathetic side of people.

Luckily, she had her backpack with her at the time, along with medical supplies. She was told it was always important to carry with her medical supplies, in case of an emergency. A life alongside monsters without a doubt came along with its own risks. While she was no expert at first aid, given her young age, she did know the basics. She slowly approached the monster with a bandage in hand, which only now noticed her presence. It growled, a unique sound forming; a mixture of high and low pitched noises. She paused for a moment, yet continued forwards after the growling ceases. Out of nowhere, it let out an unstable yet loud cry, causing her to flinch and fall over. It was a clear warning sign. While she did not realise it herself at the time, it was very possible this monster had negative experiences with humans in the past and saw this little girl as yet another threat. She picked herself up, put on a face of bravery, and continued forward once more. Yet this time, she shifting right to find herself more along the side of its tail, just in case. The mouth is quite possible the worst place to be with an unknown monster. She attempted to calm to monster, yet she found herself stumbling with her words of comfort as she discovered she was terrified of the situation she found herself in. At the time time, she also felt admiration. And it was that admiration that gave her courage as she arrived at the source of the bleeding, at the lower half of its stomach. Something had slashed at it, and left some rather nasty gashes. It hurt just to look at it. Trembling, she placed a hand on the body of the wyvern. Its scales hard, she was surprised when they felt as cold as ice. She noticed tiny ice shards covered its entire body, and lodged between the scales of this monster. It was a beautiful sight.

A problem she faced immediately was figuring out how to wrap the bandage around the wyvern. While fairly slender for a wyvern, a part of its body was slumped against the cold ground, and she was sure at this point it was too injured to move. She began by lining the white bandage across its wound, which resulted in it attempting to kick at her. Luckily, she was barely out of range to be affected. She was not sure if it were aware that all she was doing was trying to help. After studying the body of the monster, she noticed there was one way she could wrap the bandage around it. However, it would mean it would have trouble moving around for a while. Bearing through the many cries and howls from the monster, she lined the bandage several times around the gashes, using its leg as a wrapping position. It was messy work, her hands and clothes covered in quite a lot of blood, yet it was a necessity if she were to properly bandage it. It was around then she realised the cries had died down to little more than a whimper. Moving around to its front, she saw the exhausted face of the magnificent wyvern. She was unsure if it would make it… at least, not like this. It would probably not move for some time. Staring deeply into the yellow eyes of it, she knew what she had to do. Her plan was to look after it until its wounds had healed and it was able to move on its own accord. It might take days, or weeks, yet she was determined. She would need food, water, uh… blankets? She was unsure if the monster needed a blanket. Regardless, she nodded, smiling. Carefully, she reached her hand out to the face of the wyvern, not afraid of it anymore. Miraculously, it allowed her to pet its face. Much like its scales, it was like touching ice. Yet she did not mind that. She mentioned to the monster that she would be right back with food and water and maybe a blanket. Her plan was in motion, and she was excited.

Those memories of her first encounter returned to the fourteen year old. The wyvern pressed its face against her as she held onto it and laughed at the goofiness of this large creature. It was because of that fateful encounter, and her courage in her assistance it heal after almost two weeks, that they were able to solidify a unique bond that few others shared. After her friend’s leaving, it returned exactly one year later, to the very same spot they had met. Once that second meeting occurred, they met once a year at that single location, without fail, and hidden from the view of anyone from the village or those that pass by. However, this year was a little different as she had been chased away from the cave nearby the location they always meet up. Still, it brought warmth to her heart that her friend had continued to look for her, even after having not been found at the usual place. She was sure of this before, yet this only solidified that bond the two shared.

She then remembered she had something for her friend. From her backpack, she brought out a plastic box with juicy meat inside. She was unsure of how her senses somehow failed to pick up on the distinct smell of the smelly meat over the past while. She theorised perhaps all the excitement forced her to put her mind off it. The eyes of the wyvern lit up, its face perked. She was used to raw animal food in her bare hands by this point, so this action barely phased her. She lightly threw it on the ground, and within moments, the large meat disappeared from her very eyes. Even if she believed in the bond human and monster could share, she was well aware of the power of food. However, that same logic could apply to a lot of humans she knew; and some of their appetites could surpass that of even a monster.

In this moment, time seemed to stop for her. The day had become so extremely chaotic that she rarely had any time to have a breather. This was truly the first time she was able to appreciate her surroundings. The icy wonderland of the Darj Snowfields extended around her in all directions. Monsters were visible off in the distance, yet they kept their distance. The large monster from before also seemed to be absent for good. She curiously looked into her friend’s eyes, as a yellow gaze met her eyes back. Despite their lack of communication, she felt as though its expression could speak. ‘I will keep you safe,’ it said. Almost as if it were a mother which protected its child. She was safe. It was safe. There was little they needed to worry about, as long as they had each other.

For this brief moment, they were happy.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was sitting in my endless list of documents for many months, with not a lot of progress being made over a long period of time. I first started writing this before the release of Iceborne, and after my own life became far too chaotic, my passion for this short story sort of died out. However, I wanted to finish it regardless, even if the final product is not up to my own standard. At the very least, this short story serves as practise for action pieces, which is possibly my biggest weakness in writing, so I apologise if there are inconsistencies, lack of detail, or lack of substance. If inspiration comes to me again, I might return to this idea again.


End file.
